


once in a half moon

by pineneedlepants



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Stiles, Beta Derek, Derek Hale Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Derek Hale, Established Relationship, Kira is a Sweetheart, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Monster of the Week, Oblivious Lydia, Oblivious Scott, Protective Stiles, Scott is a Bad Friend, Triggers, because I always hurt Derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 16:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13768035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pineneedlepants/pseuds/pineneedlepants
Summary: There are some hurts that Derek can very easily hide from everyone around him, despite the tiny hints in his body language that clearly show his weaknesses. And then there are times that the trigger is so plainly on sight that it would only take an idiot to not notice how verynot okayDerek is with the proceedings.Namely, punching Scott in the face.--





	once in a half moon

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday Emilio!   
> I am _so_ sorry I am a day late. I completely forgot I had promised you a gift fic, so I put this together in six hours from the tropes you sent me, so if it seems a little rushed, uh, I apologize.  
>  I do hope you'll enjoy it though!
> 
> I hope the rest of you readers out there like it as well! You guys make me so happy!
> 
> Smooches to all of you!

Stiles stumbles in quickly, the door banging closed behind him as he toes off his sneakers. The hallway and the connecting living room are both dark, but there’s a light coming from deeper in the apartment. He drops his keys in the fruit bowl next to Derek’s, still getting butterflies in his stomach just at the thought of the domesticity of it all.

‘’Derek?’’

There’s an answering hum from the kitchen, which Stiles makes an immediate beeline for. It smells like Derek is making his favorite pesto chicken pasta, no doubt making masses of it for the pack, since there’s a supposed showdown later that night.

He finds the older wolf by the stove, a huge pot of pasta boiling in the left corner of the cooktop, Derek languidly reading a magazine next to it. Stiles squeezes himself underneath the man’s armpit despite being just an inch or so taller, and brings his arms around Derek to hug him close.

‘’Hey,’’ Derek greets him, pressing a soft kiss onto Stiles’ temple.

‘’Hi,’’ Stiles grins back, lifting his head to peck Derek on the lips. ‘’You making your famous chicken pesto?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Derek nods, ‘’Figured everyone would be hungry afterwards.’’

Stiles snorts. ‘’Getting tired of always gorging yourself on pizza to heal faster?’’

Shrugging amiably, Derek reaches to add the pesto on top of the sizzling pieces of chicken as they slowly cook on the pan. Stiles lets the man go rather reluctantly so he can go back to creating a miracle that is all the food Derek dips his fingers into. He settles onto a kitchen chair closest to the stove and sighs.

‘’So hey, regarding today’s, uh, big showdown. That page on bestiary about the Jorogumo? It turns out it was a little. . . Lacking in information.’’

Derek turns around, his brows creased in a frown. ‘’Lacking how?’’

Tapping his fingers against the table, Stiles considers his options. Derek is made of fine layers of durability, the core of him as strong as the beast that makes him want to howl at the moon, and his heart as soft and fragile as a newborn chick, easily crushed without the safety of the walls he has built around himself within his lifetime. This, Stiles knows, will hit home, close and hard, and he wonders if the brutal and unrefined truth would hurt less than the embellished slight lies. Whatever the outcome, it will touch the older man deeply, ripping into the old grief Derek cannot shake off no matter how many years roll past.

He decides to go for honesty. ‘’There was this thing that you read, about the Jorogumo luring in its victims with a figure of a seductive woman. You know, the stuff about the trees and the trunk and spider webs and the well, etcetera etcetera. But, what it didn’t clarify was what the woman looked like. Just that the men fell in love with her instantly, right? Well, turns out, the thing can shapeshift into the person whose bones and body it has eaten last.’’ 

Derek’s frown deepens. ‘’Okay?’’

Stiles rubs his hand down his face, wincing. ‘’When Peter cornered the Jorogumo near the Hale house this morning, the spider had shapeshifted into Laura.’’

Derek freezes, and Stiles can practically see the moment the information sinks in. The man’s face goes pale, blankness taking over his shocked expression, and he tries to imperceptibly lean onto the cabinets behind him. The man parts his lips to say something, only to close them, again and again, his hand creeping to cover his mouth. He turns away, his breath stuttering.

Stiles springs up from his chair and comes to stand next to Derek, unsure whether or not crowding him right now would be welcomed. He wants to touch, to soothe, but he knows he’ll be able to do that only when Derek gives him the permission. He pushes his hands underneath his armpits to prevent himself from reaching out.

‘’Easy,’’ Stiles says gently, ‘’Breathe for me, okay, big guy? In and out.’’

Derek releases a shuddering exhale, gripping the granite table level. The man’s eyes are squeezed tightly shut, a pained expression etched into his features. He lets Stiles coax him through a couple breathing exercises, and then grabs him, colliding their bodies in an act of finding comfort.

Stiles obliges easily, plastering himself over Derek’s front, pushing the wolf’s face into his neck, his long fingers trailing softly through the thick, unruly locks on Derek’s nape. The man shudders again, squeezing Stiles tightly, seeking shelter from his own storming emotions. Anchoring himself.

Stiles decides against saying anything, letting Derek find his bearings. He rubs his hand up and down the man’s back, slowly circling the muscles, softening them, easing them out of their lock. Derek’s breathing evens out quickly, but his fingers stay fisted in Stiles’ shirt, bunching it up. 

‘’That  _ thing _ ,’’ Derek grits out a while later, ‘’Desecrated Laura’s grave, feasted on her bones and now parades in the preserve wearing her face?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Stiles confirms quietly. ‘’I’ve only ever seen it as a spider when we first encountered it with Kira, but both Peter and Malia said that she was wearing Laura’s face when they met it in different places in the preserve today. Peter in the morning and Malia later in the afternoon.’’

Derek lets Stiles’ shirt go, taking a step back. Stiles releases him, cataloging the wolf’s pale face as the man stiffly turns to take the pasta off the stove. He stands off the way as Derek puts the foods together, uncertain as to what words would bring Derek comfort right now.

Perhaps no words can soothe the wolf. The only thing that might bring Derek some sort of vicious peace of mind would be if he could spill the monster’s blood and see the Jorogumo die a gruesome death. 

Wiping his hands into a towel, Derek mixes the pesto and pasta with a huge spoon inside the pot, before he places a lid on top of it, pushing it to the corner to await its eaters. Then the wolf turns to Stiles with a determined expression. 

‘’What time are we leaving?’’

Stiles stares at the floor for a moment, refusing to meet Derek’s eyes as he says, ‘’I’ll be leaving in,’’ he glances at the clock on his wrist, ‘’Ten minutes.  _ You,  _ on the other hand _ ,  _ aren’t coming.’’

‘’What?’’ Derek says in that horrible blank voice that always drags Stiles back to his high school days.

Huffing out a breath, Stiles lifts his chin up stubbornly. ‘’I  _ said  _ that you aren’t coming.’’

‘’And who are you to decide that?’’ Derek asks, a hint of fang catching onto his lower lip. 

Reaching out, Stiles takes one of Derek’s hands that the wolf has crossed over his chest, and brings it over to his own heart, confident that Derek won’t hurt him. There are claws, but they retract the second Stiles presses the hand onto his sternum. ‘’I can’t let you come with us this time. And before you say anything against this decision, just, hear me out. Alright?’’

Derek growls, displeased, but doesn’t yank his arm away. Stiles sighs in relief.

‘’Okay. So. Jorogumo. The bones -- And I know this fucking hurts to hear right now, but please try to bear it for a minute-- hold a lot of memories of the person. Right? Much like DNA works for the scientists to figure out all sorts of diseases from the skeletons they find from thousands of years ago from across the globe. I know you know the more detailed intricacies of this stuff, so you get the basic idea. And the shape the Jorogumo takes, it’s, it’s very, very accurate. All the memories of the deceased are inside those bones, the fear, and the joy and the -- the, all of the stuff, leftover traces of chemosignals and whatever. And right now, with the shape the thing has taken, it makes you so fucking vulnerable for an attack, Derek.’’

The wolf makes a low sound, of disagreement or hurt, Stiles can’t tell, so he forges on, ‘’I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just is what it is. The Japanese lore of the Jorogumo dates down to centuries of sightings and deaths, so it’s clearly  _ thriving  _ since it has landed itself onto American soil. So now that we know it has taken a shape that makes you and Peter extremely easy targets, the only way we can take it down safely and without any unnecessary injuries, is to extract both of you from the fight. Because if it gets even a millisecond of an opening for an attack, it’ll use it and it  _ will  _ aim to kill.’’

Derek’s mouth has pursed down, his frown deep, but Stiles sees the reluctant agreement. The shift recedes, canines disappearing. 

Stiles brings his free hand to rub at Derek’s upper lip. ‘’Does this mean that you’ll stay at home?’’ he asks, hopeful.

‘’I don’t like this,’’ Derek says instead, shaking his head. ‘’I don’t want you going out there without proper backup.’’

‘’I have backup,’’ Stiles disagrees. ‘’I have Malia and Kira. You know those two can hold their ground almost as well as you and Peter can.’’

Derek takes away his hand and crosses them again over his chest. He seems to ponder about it for a moment, so Stiles tries to stay patient. He knows Derek has to disagree and argue his own point before he can concede defeat if it’s warranted. It’s one of the things that would’ve been useful to know in the beginning of all of this, of Scott being bitten and all of them getting thrown into the deep end and told to swim. If the young Stiles and Scott had just taken the time to actually  _ listen  _ to what Derek had had to say, he thinks that things might have ended a lot differently.

Derek opens his mouth, just to close it again. He taps his finger against his muscle, and then says, ‘’But if we already know it’s not -- Not the  _ real  _ Laura, then the Jorogumo isn’t as big of a threat, right? We can just fight it. Force the lure to dissipate or change forms.’’

Stiles shakes his head. ‘’The thing, if the lores are anything to go by, is good at alternating the perception of reality of the victims it has under its lure. If the Jorogumo wants you to believe that the shape it has taken is real,  _ really  _ real, then it probably can do it. And besides, Derek, just, tell me honestly. Could you land a killing blow to a person that carries Laura’s face, even knowing it’s fake? Could you see your sister’s features twist in agony as you rip her throat out without hesitating for a single second?’’

The wolf turns his head away. They both know he cannot. Laura’s death is still too fresh, the wound of her passing still festering where it ripped a hole in Derek’s heart. 

‘’What if we stay further away with Peter? If anything goes wrong, you could just howl and we’d --’’

‘’If something  _ does  _ go wrong, you and Peter wouldn’t be able to handle the thing alone if  _ an entire pack  _ of wolves has already failed at that point,’’ Stiles says, not unkindly. ‘’Please, Derek. You can’t come. At that point, if the Jorogumo ends up getting a whiff of either of you, do you not think that it would set its sights on you first? Because it’ll  _ know  _ you. If it got you in its webs, it would use you as a powersource to kill off the rest of us. I know I’m unfairly asking you to take a step back while I go into the thick of things. It’s the exact opposite what we agreed on when we started dating, but, do you not think -- I mean, ugh, this is not exactly our usual fight scenario, nor even an opponent that we’ve come across before. We don’t know how it really works, and how long the banishing spell takes until it’s complete.’’ 

When Derek doesn’t show signs of agreeing to the plan entirely, with a quick realization, he changes tactics. He comes to stand in front of the wolf, forcing the man to lower his arms so that Stiles can snugly fit himself against Derek’s chest, and gently cups Derek’s cheeks, gazing into his eyes. ‘’Tell me honestly, if our roles were reversed, what would you do?’’ 

Derek shuts his eyes, fight leaving his shoulders immediately. ‘’Make you stay at home,’’ he grits out. His arms come to pull Stiles closer, the wolf pushing his nose into Stiles’ hair.

‘’Exactly. So you understand why I don’t want you to come with the pack this time?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Derek mutters, ‘’But I want you to check in with me whenever you can. Keep Chris on your speed dial.’’

‘’Promise,’’ Stiles nods. ‘’And you promise to not tail after me, or come lurk in the preserve in case something happens? You’ll stay here?’’

Tightening his hold, Derek seems to fight an inner battle. His instincts end up losing though, in the face of his human reasoning. ‘’I promise,’’ Derek says with a sigh.

‘’Good,’’ Stiles says, satisfied. Then he shrugs playfully, joking, ‘’I mean, I could’ve just put a mountain ash circle around the house to keep you in, but I figured that you’d rather not be limited to one room only.’’

Derek lifts his head slowly from where it had been buried in Stiles’ shaggy mop, his face utterly serious. ‘’If you had locked me inside a mountain ash circle, leaving me alone in the apartment while you left, I would have broken up with you then and there, without ever wanting to see your face again.’’

Hurt, deep and aching slices through Stiles’ heart at the words. He opens his mouth to demand what the fuck the wolf means by that, but before he has a chance to even utter a single thing, realization dawns on him with horrifying clarity.

He swallows roughly before he nods. ‘’I swear that I will never ever, ever, do it, and I will never again even entertain the idea. Not even as a joke. I’m sorry.’’

‘’Apology accepted,’’ Derek mutters, hugging Stiles back close. 

Stiles sinks into it, soaking in the warmth of the embrace, before he catches the sight of the clock on the wall. ‘’Shit,’’ he curses, extracting himself, ‘’I need to go. The spell needs to be complete by a certain point of the moon rotation, and we still haven’t found the Jorogumo’s lair.’’

Derek pulls him to a quick kiss by the nape of his neck. ‘’Please be careful.’’

Stiles pecks him on the side of his jaw. ‘’I’m only the spellcaster. Everyone else gets to do the dirty work.’’ Seeing the warning look in Derek’s eyes, he lifts his hands. ‘’I’ll be careful. I’ll be so careful you’ve never seen me be more aware of my surroundings, I’ll be the most  _ careful-est  _ person to ever care fully about being careful.’’

Derek blinks, making Stiles snort. He gives one more kiss to the wolf before he hurries out of the kitchen, snatching his keys and phone, jamming his feet into his sneakers, hollering a departing, ‘’I’ll call you when we start our trek back to warn you when the wolves will descend on your food!’’

Derek waves him stiffly off, clearly unhappy about his situation, but Stiles surmises, that, yeah, if he was in Derek’s shoes, he would be too.

As it is, he’s got a spell to cast before the time limit is over, and he’s gotta get this packed and done in one try. His Jeep rumbles to life, headlights lighting up the sidewalk. He makes sure he has all the ingredients still in the satin pouch in the passenger seat, and then floors the car off the property, shooting out a text to the pack’s group chat that he’s en route. 

The groupchat flares to life with responding messages, and Stiles points the hood of his car to the preserve, his only company the constant  _ bling-bling-bling _ of his phone and the scratched Rolling Stones album Derek left in his Jeep a summer ago that always skips tracks two and five, and only plays half of track six. It’s not a bad way to start an evening that will ultimately end up in someone getting a little bloody.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Kira and Malia are standing next to Kira’s car when Stiles reaches the parking lot meant for preserve visitors. The moon is only half full, illuminating the women’s faces as Stiles grinds his car to a stop beside them. He takes up the pouch and climbs out.

‘’Hey,’’ he says, lifting one arm as Kira comes to hug him in greeting. ‘’Where’s everyone else?’’

‘’Lydia forgot the spellbook in Derek’s apartment,’’ Malia answers, giving him a nod. Since their breakup two years ago, they never quite got back into being comfortable in each other’s presence. Civil, yes. Friendly? Not exactly.

‘’Aw, hell. I could’ve grabbed it, had I known.’’

Malia shrugs in response. 

Kira pats him on the back before extracting herself. ‘’Scott went with her since Lydia was already at the vet clinic with him because of Prada. They said they’d be quick.’’

‘’Okay. And the rest?’’ Stiles asks.

‘’I think Liam is herding the rest of the pack by foot. His car broke down again, and I don’t think Mason’s parents will consider loaning the car to them again, since they’ve totaled it twice this year,’’ Kira says with a sheepish grin.

Stiles blinks. ‘’Right,’’ he says slowly, ‘’What did he do with it? Partake in demolition derby?’’

‘’Something like that,’’ she agrees. ‘’Scott figured that since Liam had so much trouble controlling the wolf, he should try doing something violent to curb the urge to shift. Car racing seemed to be the first thing he thought of, so. . .’’

‘’So he’s an idiot,’’ Stiles rolls his eyes. ‘’Right. Well. I guess we can’t do anything but wait, then.’’

Kira nods. ‘’Yeah. They should be here soon, though. How about Derek and Peter?’’

Shaking his head, Stiles climbs to sit on top of the hood of his Jeep. ‘’As of this morning, the Jorogumo has shapeshifted into Laura, Derek’s deceased sister. Since its main attack is to lure in its victims by altering their perception of reality, we figured that Peter and Derek should sit this one out. It hits a little bit too close to home for them, and since we’re dealing with a goddamn  _ spider monster _ , we probably can’t give it a single second of opening for an attack. You know, with those extra limbs and cobwebs, it’s probably easy for it to divert its victims attention.’’

‘’You managed to talk Derek into staying home?’’ Kira asks with wide eyes.

A little bit pleased with himself about it, Stiles grins. ‘’Yeah. He trusts me to handle myself, and he trusts you two to be my backup.’’

‘’Well, we better honor the trust then,’’ she says, hand coming to rest on top of her katana. Even Malia bares her teeth and says, ‘’I’ll rip anything that comes near you into pieces.’’

Giving both women a thumbs up, he fishes out his phone with one hand, checking his messages. Derek had sent him a  _ ‘Good luck’  _ almost immediately after his departure, so Stiles sends him three hearts back and a ‘ _ Waiting for the rest of the wolves to descend’. _ Lydia has messaged him twenty minutes ago that they’ll be there soon, and just as he’s typing out a response, he hears the smooth rumble of her Porsche approaching.

He’s a little surprised to see Scott with a bloody nose as the wolf steps out of the car. Stiles jumps down from the high level of his Jeep, frowning in confusion when Lydia gives him a pointed glare. He opens his mouth to ask, but then Liam and the company stumble through from the bushes, and the question dies in his throat.

He’ll have to pry information out of other people later, then.

There’s a moment of chaos before Stiles commands everyone to calm down so that he can brief them properly. Sometimes, being cast into the role of the magical sidekick that has to round everyone up like an Alpha, has him resent Scott a little bit for always taking a step back.

Miraculously, ten minutes later has everyone pointing their noses towards the thick heart of the preserve, the moonlight brightly parting the shadows for them, showing them their path. Lydia dumps the spellbook into his arms with pursed lips, clearly annoyed with him for some reason. He knows she’ll tell him exactly why though, at some point in the near future. Her wrath and the reasons for it will always come to light when she intends them to.

So Stiles grabs the book and follows his friends into the waiting arms of the enemy, confident in everyone’s abilities to stay alive, and to keep the humans uninjured. Not that the kevlar vest he’s wearing does any harm though, or the protective charms and the wired baseball pat attached to his back. One can never be too cautious.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


It takes them five grueling hours to finally capture the spider creature, fend off its little fire-breathing minions and complete the spell to banish it from Beacon Hills. Though, if the melting of its skin and the black fire that ate it are anything to go by, Stiles doesn’t think the spell simply banished the monster. His bat is filled with chunks of the critters, their blood and gore decorating his person. Everyone seems to have some kind of twitching leg on their bodies, guts and pieces of questionable gunk spread all over the clearing. 

Stiles pants in exhaustion, wiping off sweat and blood from his brow. Kira huffs and puffs on his side, sending him a wide grin.

‘’We did it!’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Stiles chuckles breathlessly, ‘’We did. We really fucking did it.’’ He drops the bat onto the ground, fishing out a lighter from his pocket. ‘’Gotta burn that cobweb still. Then we’ll be done.’’

He slowly walks over to the huge web spanning over four trees, determinedly keeping his gaze away from the skeletons that are still stuck in the gooey glue-like net of strings. The victims have either been alive when they’ve been captured, their flesh eaten and bones picked clean afterwards, or then the Jorogumo has ransacked at least ten graves since its arrival in Beacon Hills. And Stiles is pretty sure he would’ve heard from his dad would there have been graves being opened in the cemetery, which only leads him to one conclusion, the only sensible answer he refuses to think about. The lumps hanging are different in shapes and sizes, and the thought of a child getting eaten alive by the spider monster makes him want to barricade all of the kids in the elementary schools and kindergartens inside the facilities and never let them out again.

As he starts the fire from one corner of the giant gossamer, he blows a little bit of mountain ash in the air, willing the fire to not hurt the trees and to not spread into the wildlife, flora or fauna. He stands back and stays watching for a minute, making sure the flames stay controlled. Satisfied that they are, he fishes out his phone to send a text to Derek. He’s a little worried that the wolf hasn’t replied to any of his check-ins, unsure whether it means that Derek is actually mad after all and is refusing to message back because he’s angry, or if it means that Derek has been attacked and is hurt and  _ can’t  _ answer.

‘’Is anyone up for some pizza?’’ Scott asks with a grimace as he tries to wipe away some of the grime. There’s a collective chorus of yes’s that Stiles can hear, and after a last check that the fire is still contained and not spreading onto the low hanging branches, he turns around to see everyone migrating to the alpha. He lets his magic guide his steps through the dark and focuses on the screen of his phone, squinting at the  _ 2 AM _ displayed in the upper corner.

‘’Actually,’’ Stiles says, tapping on the device as he follows the pack stumbling towards their cars, ‘’Derek made everyone pasta if you guys are interested. The chicken red pesto most of you like.’’ He looks up. ‘’He specially made you, Lydia, another batch that’s entirely vegan.’’

‘’Oh yum,’’ Kira says excitedly. ‘’I love Derek’s food! I could definitely come! I don’t have any classes tomorrow so if it’s okay with you guys, I would totally love crashing on your sofa? Though if there’s no space, I have a place reserved in Malia’s bed, so no need to stress about it if it’s not okay!’’

Stiles nods, ‘’Sure. Derek won’t mind. I’m pretty certain he even washed the guest sheets just two days ago, so you’d be getting the fresh linen this time.’’ He drops his head to squint at his phone again. ‘’Depending whether he actually answers or not. He hasn’t replied to any of my messages since I left the apartment, despite asking for infrequent check-ins.’’

Scott suddenly bumps his shoulder, the alpha sharing the step with Stiles. ‘’Speaking of Derek,’’ the wolf starts, ‘’When we got to the apartment with Lydia, he wasn’t in a mountain ash circle to prevent him from interfering. I thought you said that you’d take care of Derek not coming?’’

Stiles blinks. ‘’I did? He promised to stay away and he has. There was no need for any extreme measures.’’ His face falls. ‘’Or did you catch a whiff of him out there?’’  _ Surely  _ Derek wouldn’t break his promise like that, right? 

Scott frowns. ‘’No. When we went by with Lydia, he opened the door for us, so we figured that he must’ve gotten out of the mountain ash circle you left him in somehow, which was weird, because I thought only True Alphas could pass the wolfsbane without problem? Anyway, I pinned him down while Lydia scattered the ash into a ring around us, and then we took the spellbook and left.’’ His expression brightens. ‘’But since he’s not here, Lydia’s magic must’ve worked. He punched me really hard though, before I could get my claws into his neck. He might not be an alpha anymore, but his right hook is really strong. If he’s made pasta and wants everyone over, I hope he’s calmed down a little.’’

Stiles stops, gaping at the wolf incredulously. He looks down at his phone and the unanswered messages, Derek’s silence making suddenly a hell of a lot more sense. ‘’You -- You -- You trapped him in a mountain ash circle inside his apartment, alone, and. . . Left him there? _ For over five hours?’’ _

Cocking his head in confusion, Scott nods. ‘’Yeah man. You know how he gets. He just never learns to back down. It was for his own safety.’’

‘’His own --’’ Stiles hisses, unable to even complete the sentence. He pauses, staring at his faux-brother with fury, and grits, ‘’Scott, you mean to tell me that you left Derek trapped in a ring of poison, without any means to defend himself from an attack or even call for backup since you’ve clearly left his phone out of reach? What if some of the critters had tracked Derek down and tried to kill him? Fuck, what if the Jorogumo  _ itself  _ had found its way to the apartment, it’s not like we discovered its lair right away.’’ He doesn’t let Scott answer any of that. ‘’And even then, even completely disregarding the supernatural aspect of the entire idiotic thing you did, what do you think would have happened should there have been an electrical failure? What if the building had caught on  _ fire  _ for whatever reason? Derek would have been trapped in there with no way to escape, and ultimately would’ve been  _ burned alive _ , you know, like his  _ entire family did  _ \-- ‘’

‘’Whoah, hey, wow, Stiles, maybe, take a deep breath?’’ Kira says, pushing herself between the two of them. ‘’Please, breathe?’’

Stiles inhales deeply through his teeth, his phone creaking where he grips it just a tad too hard.

Scott frowns, his nostrils flaring as he scents the air. ‘’Why are you getting so agitated? Nothing happened. Derek would’ve howled if he’d been attacked or whatever. This way he was out of the way, you know?’’

Too angry to say anything more, Stiles grabs the scruff of Scott’s collar, dragging him forward to the cars. The pack eyes them uneasily, uncertain of the sudden shift in positions of power and whether or not to stop and whom. 

‘’What the hell, man?’’ Scott chokes, stumbling along where Stiles takes him. As they pass Lydia, Stiles grabs her arm too, albeit more gently, his grip not nearly as painful as the one he has over his brother’s collar. ‘’You two,’’ Stiles grinds out furiously, ‘’Are coming with me back to Derek’s apartment. There, you will apologize to Derek for what you did, and accept any response from him, even if it means he refuses to acknowledge either of you right away.’’

‘’Stiles Stilinski, let go of my arm  _ this instant _ .’’ Lydia says, trying to yank her limb away. ‘’Do  _ not  _ touch me. You have no right to make me do anything -- ‘’

Seething, Stiles lets both of them go when he sees their cars in the distance, and spits, ‘’Oh, so now  _ you  _ have autonomy over your own body. What about you disregarding  _ Derek’s  _ permission to let you touch him, or manipulate his body to your bidding? Where were  _ his  _ rights when you unjustly trapped him inside his apartment without his consent?’’

Lydia glares at him. ‘’You’re taking this way out of proportion. We only ensured that he wouldn’t leave the apartment and come stumbling into the battlefield, where he would have ultimately failed at fighting the monster. We didn’t do anything he didn’t approve of.’’

‘’He  _ punched  _ Scott when he tried pinning Derek down! How does that seem like an mutual agreement to you?’’ Stiles exclaims angrily.

‘’Guys, please,’’ Kira pleads a little timidly, ‘’Calm down. We should probably be talking about this with Derek, you know, in attendance? Since we’re arguing about him in the first place?’’

Taking a couple deep breaths, Stiles wills his rage down. Kira’s right. They should definitely get back to the apartment to relieve Derek from his temporary prison, and then sit down and talk about why what happened wasn’t okay in any magnitude. ‘’Fine,’’ he snarls, ‘’But only Lydia and Scott. The rest of you, go home. We don’t need any extra witnesses for this.’’

Liam groans in disappointment. ‘’So no pasta after all?’’

Pinning the young wolf with an angry look, Stiles bluntly says, ‘’No pasta. No pizza. Go the fuck home.’’

‘’Fine,’’ Liam mutters sullenly. ‘’C’mon guys. Let’s head out. We aren’t apparently needed anymore tonight.’’

Stiles stares as the younger wolves disappear into the woods, and then stomps to his own Jeep. Kira hovers nervously behind, dragging Malia with her to her car. ‘’I’ll um, text you later?’’ she asks, and Stiles nods. To Lydia and Scott, he points towards Lydia’s car. ‘’Get inside and follow me. We’re gonna settle this right now.’’

Scott sighs in exasperation, but obeys easily. ‘’We didn’t even do anything wrong,’’ the wolf grumbles. Stiles pretends he didn’t hear his brother at all. Otherwise Scott would be sporting another bloody nose.

He quickly shoots a text to Chris Argent, explaining that the Jorogumo has been dealt with, and that the cobwebs should burn away during the night, but it would be cool if the man could go check it out in the morning. Make sure no evidence gets left behind. He doesn’t expect a reply, at least not until the sun has started rising, so he throws the device onto the passenger seat and works the Jeep to life, glaring at the Porsche next to him pointedly, and reverses out.

Some of the weight drops off his chest as the car starts following him back to Derek’s place, knowing that, even if the two aren’t completely aware how fucked up their method was, they’re at least conceding that they’ve done  _ something  _ wrong, and want to fix it.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Stiles doesn’t wait for the Porsche to park, running up the stairs two at a time to reach the apartment faster. When he gets to Derek’s level, he sees, much to his great relief, that at least the front door is unharmed and locked. He opens the lock as fast as he can, stumbling into the apartment.

‘’Derek?’’ he hollers, not bothering to take his sneakers off. The extra five seconds it would’ve taken is too much for Stiles’ heart to handle. He needs to see with his own eyes that Derek is whole and unharmed before his galloping heart can calm down. ‘’De --’’

He stops in the living room entrance, his mouth dropping open in complete and utter shock. He sees Derek standing in the middle of the room, spaced onto the wooden floor, mere inches away from the plush carpet, his bare toes curled against the cold, his arms wrapped around his upper torso. He’s pale and sweating, fine tremors going through his body, his eyes dark and bleak with betrayal. There are five thin lines of blood trailing down Derek’s back from his neck, the evidence corresponding with Scott’s story.

The mountain ash ring is barely big enough to accommodate Derek’s feet, let alone his whole frame. The wolf has been standing there for a better part of six hours, unable to sit or lay down, or even move his feet more than up or down. Purple shocks jolt the wolf every time he sways an inch too far against the wall of the ash circle.

‘’What the  _ fuck  _ \--’’ Stiles breathes, before he’s diving to the floor, hastily breaking the line of ash, freeing Derek from the torturous position he’s had to hold for the whole evening. 

The second the ring breaks, Derek staggers out, his legs collapsing from under him. Stiles catches him before he has a chance to hit his body against the hardwood, the wolf’s skin cold and clammy.

‘’Jesus,’’ Stiles says, grabbing at Derek’s arms. ‘’Are you okay? Hey, big guy? You okay?’’

Derek shakes his head, his breath hitching. He’s leaning against Stiles, seeking desperately some kind of contact of skin, so Stiles lifts both of their shirts up, letting their stomachs touch without barriers when Derek practically shoves himself into Stiles’ lap.

‘’You’re okay. You’re okay, now. Easy. Easy. I’m sorry, Derek. I had no idea they would do this. I --’’

‘’What’s wrong with Derek?’’ Scott asks as he enters, his brows creased in worry. Lydia follows him silently, taking in on the scene in front of her.

Stiles snarls. ‘’What’s  _ wrong _ ? You left him in a circle so small he couldn’t even  _ move _ , dumbass! He’s been standing here for six hours without able to even sit down and rest, or eat or do  _ anything _ , and then you ask _ what’s wrong? Jesus fucking christ.’’ _

Scott crouches down, not reaching out to touch though, thank god, or Stiles might have ripped his arm off. His brother shrugs, his face a little apologetic. ‘’Yeah, I mean, it was pretty difficult to lay down the ash when he struggled so much. If he’d just stayed still when Lydia did the barrier, she would’ve been able to do a lot bigger one, with more space to move.’’

Derek lurches away from Stiles, making his arms drop from where they’d been hugging him close. The wolf shoves himself past Scott, making the alpha tumble down with force, and races to the bathroom. Stiles hears the door opening before the sounds of retching carry to the rest of the apartment.

His limbs freeze in place. He’s only ever been this angry with Scott three times in his life. And after all of those times, it has taken them long months to rekindle that friendship back into the feeling of being brothers again. He has no idea how his kind and goofy childhood friend can be so dismissive, so hurtful towards Derek. He knows there’s trauma behind his brother’s hatred, even if Scott would never admit to hating Derek. Not outright. All of them know that most of the things that happened in their high school years were not in any form or shape Derek’s fault, and  _ rationally _ , the pack is aware of it. But somehow that seed of doubt, the feeling that Derek is the beginning and the end of all things evil has rooted inside Scott’s heart, and Stiles doesn’t think he’ll ever fully be rid of it.

‘’I think we’ll put a hold onto that apology of yours,’’ Stiles says bluntly, snapping himself out of his daze. ‘’And I think I need both of you to leave, after all. We can’t do this tonight. Not when everything’s still fresh and festering. I think, what Derek needs, is time and space to come in terms with this.’’ He stands up, pulling his shirt down.

Scott purses his lips, rubbing his hand up and down his face. ‘’Look, I don’t know what’s going on, man, but I think there’s some kind of, of, misunderstanding or whatever. We didn’t, you know, really do anything to Derek. He’s uninjured, safe from the fight and fine. I don’t understand why you’re so angry about this. Yeah, okay, maybe we left him a little too little space to move around in. But it’s not like it hurt him. He’s a werewolf, he’ll heal the sore muscles he has now, or whatever.’’

‘’The fact that you don’t see what you did wrong, even though it’s right there in front of you, is what’s the problem here in the first place. I explained to you back in the preserve, why what you did was wrong. I can even write it down for you, if it’ll clarify things for you. But right now, I need both of you to leave this apartment and not contact either me or Derek for the next twenty four hours. Okay?’’

‘’No, no it’s  _ not  _ okay,’’ Scott disagrees in frustration, straightening from the crouch to stand level with Stiles. ‘’I don’t  _ understand _ , dude. Why is this such a huge issue right now? It was just a mountain ash circle!’’

‘’I don’t owe you an explanation that would cross the line of privacy, nor do I have the patience to do that right now. I just want you to  _ leave _ , Scott. Because right now? Right now,  _ you’re  _ the bad guy in this scenario. You’re the one who trapped your friend in an inhumane position to uphold for six hours, you’re the one who left your friend vulnerable for an attack without being able to defend himself,  _ you’re  _ the one who  _ betrayed  _ your friend’s trust and manipulated his body to do something he did not want to do. So no, Scott. It wasn’t  _ just  _ a mountain ash circle. And the sooner you realize that, realize the magnitude of your fuck-up, the sooner things might get better. But for tonight? Just leave.’’

Lydia comes to quietly take Scott’s arm, pulling him gently away. ‘’C’mon, Scott,’’ she says. ‘’We need to go. We can’t stay here right now.’’ She seems to have finally caught on, which makes Stiles just a tiny bit relieved. Though, she was supposed to be the smartest of the two, so Stiles has no idea how Scott made Lydia agree to such crude treatment towards Derek. As far as Stiles is aware, Derek is academically a lot more educated and knowing than Lydia, even if the wolf has half the education under his belt than she does, and they’ve become sort-of friends that share all sorts of interesting articles and scientific texts together. Lydia loves when she’s being challenged intellectually, and Derek is a worthy opponent for her. He thought she  _ liked  _ Derek. So what gives?

‘’But I just don’t understand!’’ The alpha exclaims. Lydia shushes him, her pale face darting glances towards the bathroom door that’s still wide open. ‘’I’ll explain it to you, but not here. Okay? Let me take you home, get some rest and then we’ll talk in the morning, when your head’s more clear. Okay?’’

Scott huffs, his face twisted in a kicked puppy look, but he complies once he sees that Stiles is entirely unyielding to his tantrum. ‘’Fine. Let’s go.’’ He turns, taking Lydia with him, and closes the front door with a forceful  _ bang  _ that reverberates throughout the apartment. 

Stiles marches after them, pushing the locks and bolts into place before punching in the alarm code for the security system. After he’s made sure that all the doors and windows are locked, he ventures quietly to the bathroom, where the sounds of violent retching have gradually quieted down.

He finds Derek curled up next to the toilet, his henley wet with cold sweat, his hands shaking where they’re resting against the cool porcelain rim. Stiles comes to crouch behind the man, slowly bringing his hand to rest against Derek’s back, rubbing his palm up and down the man’s spine when he doesn't flinch away from touch.

‘’Hey,’’ he murmurs. ‘’How are you holding up?’’

Derek shrugs, eyes squeezed tightly shut. 

‘’You still feel like you need to empty your stomach more?’’

There’s a minimal headshake. Stiles continues to make broad moves against the wolf’s shirt with his hand, wishing there wasn’t any barrier of the layers of shirts he’s wearing.

‘’You think we could relocate this to the bedroom?’’ He asks softly. 

Derek’s quiet for a moment before he nods a yes, and lets Stiles help him up. The wolf’s limbs are a bit shaky, his steps unsteady, and Stiles feels sympathy for him, knowing just how deeply a bad trigger can shake a person to their core. How long the nonequilibrium stays in a person’s system, lingering the state of shock in the muscles and in the ache of the bones. How it messes with the perception of time, with one’s emotions. He hates that Derek will have to go through that again and again for the next god knows how long.

They get to the master bedroom where Stiles immediately makes Derek sit on the bed. The main light seems too bright for the traumatizing evening, so Stiles snaps the reading lamp on, illuminating the room with a soft, orange glow.

He undresses the man completely, taking his time and doing it slowly, discarding every piece of clothing to the floor. He kisses and caresses every new space of exposed skin, grounding Derek to the present. Even as Derek stays limp and unresponsive, he doesn’t let it deter him. The man’s expression is detached and faraway, and Stiles knows Derek needs the time to put some space between the things that happened. He’s not worried. Not yet, at least. When the wolf is entirely bare, Stiles hastily follows suit, throwing his clothes into the hamper, and then picking up the wolf’s clothes too. He knows himself well enough to predict that his nightly trip to the bathroom might end up with a cracked skull if he stumbles onto the clothes on the floor.

When he’s done, he turns around to face Derek. He opens his arms widely, letting out a soft sigh.

‘’Come here,’’ he murmurs, which catches Derek’s attention. The wolf lifts his head in exhaustion, slowly standing up from the bed and collapsing in Stiles’ arms, letting him wrap them tightly around him, before he nuzzles his face into Stiles’ neck.

Knowing how much Derek needs the anchor to teether him into his humanity, his sanity, he embraces the wolf with strength.

Derek isn’t hard, and neither is Stiles. It isn’t about sex. Not this. Even when their naked groins rub together, Stiles knows there’s no scent of arousal, no desire to any of it. Both of them just need the comfort of a beloved one, the feeling of receiving unconditional love and affection, and fuck if Stiles won’t give all he has to the man he loves. He starts to rub his palm up and down Derek’s back again, finding the continuum of repetition soothing.

Derek responds by melting against Stiles’ chest, the man holding onto him for dear life.

So Stiles gently guides Derek to their bed, gets them situated under the covers and then draws the wolf as tightly close as he possibly can manage, getting as much skin contact as he’s able to between them. He knows Derek will wake up tonight with nightmares. Probably the next month will be nothing but sleepless hours of daylight and moonlight, night terrors and resentful anger that is meant towards the universe, but they will take out on each other. 

But it doesn’t matter. They’ll just hold onto each other that much more desperately, unwilling to lose the other no matter the cost. 

 

Because they’re alive, and they’re here. 

 

They’ve survived the abuse, and now they will survive the recovery.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
